With plans for the new undergraduate residence indefinitely tied up in court, MIT, with surprising pragmatism, decided to grant FSILGs a reprieve -- come the fall of 2001, they will still be allowed to rush freshmen.

This means that as the Institute settles in for what is certain to be a lengthy legal battle, undergraduates and graduate students alike can breathe a little easier. Administrators could have stuck to their guns and cleared Tang Hall for over-capacity freshmen occupancy. But, in a rare display of sense, MIT backed down and abandoned the plan to house the entire Class of 2005 on campus.

However, the administration has yet to take full responsibility for this debacle. Cambridge Executive Enterprises, which filed the appeal now in the path of the new dorm, is not to blame. Their concerns are valid and they are perfectly entitled to pursue the legal options open to them. This mess is MIT’s fault. The Institute should have paid more attention to the concerns of local businesses and to the permit process when designing its new dorm.

In any case, The Tech hopes the administration will continue to acknowledge that the housing problem is best served by careful planning, not the enforcement of arbitrary deadlines.